Loss of films is loss of country: Javed Akhtar

New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) Loss of films is the loss of the whole nation, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said here on Thursday referring to the inferior content of cinematic texts and lyrical music.

“Loss of films is the loss of the whole country. Films have a heavy impact on the masses and thus if film music is inappropriate or vulgar, the whole nation is affected ,” Javed said.

“You can’t blame the writer for that. Problem is not with the music makers, it is with the masses, who appreciate it and make it a hit,” he added.

“Why don’t audiences reject such songs? They only protest when their religious sentiments are hurt but there are no protests against vulgarity in the lyrics,” he said.

“Songs are written on situations. Stories and music has changed. The value of words has deteriorated as our language is becoming thin. The young generation is never heard using proverbs.”

Akhtar was speaking at the launch of “Sahir Samagra”, an exhaustive collection of Sahir Ludhianvi’s writings published by Rajkamal Prakashan and edited by novelist Aasha Prabhat.

“The young generation today doesn’t know poetry, language, literature, folk songs and tradition. They say it is because of bad upbringing if a person has a good command over Hindi and Urdu,” the lyricist said.

“It is completely understandable that English is crucial in the 21st century but we have to have bilingual kids,” he added.

Akhtar said he writes to reach the masses and the idea is never to use difficult vocabularies to make an impression.

He said: “It’s easy to write in a difficult language but it’s difficult to write in an easy language. The reader or the listener would only be impressed by the simple poetry if its content is substantial. Use of difficult words help the writer camouflage the inadequacy of ideas and thoughts.”

Talking about social issues being addressed in films, he said: “Cinema has changed and nowadays films seldom address social issues. These days movies are made on the ruling class while old films targeted the labour/working class. It is because the middle class today is rich and disinterested in knowing the poor man’s issues.”